HUNTER LEE MORRIS - 1 yo (2009) - Brooksville FL

Hernando County Sheriff's detectives have charged a 19-year-old with
murder after a baby he is accused of beating for months died.

Officials said David Alan McBurnett repeatedly hit his girlfriend's 1-year-old
son because of the boy's crying. McBurnett was arrested Thursday on an
aggravated child abuse charge; at that time, the baby was severely
injured. The baby died Saturday, and authorities upgraded the
charged to murder. McBurnett is being held without bail at the Hernando County Jail.

Brooksville FL ---- Breanna Underwood was composed when authorities asked her questions about her
dying son.
A bruised, battered and broken Hunter Lee Morris was on life support.
Permanent brain damage seemed imminent.
Those around her said Underwood was laughing when she should have
been crying. She seemed indifferent when she should have been concerned.
When her 1-year-old son was taken off his ventilator
the afternoon of Sept. 12, 2009, a social
worker at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg said Underwood cracked jokes.
The child protection investigator with the Florida
Department of Children and Families interviewed her Sept. 11, 2009.
She told her it was likely her son would die. Underwood, 20, said plainly, "I know."
In her report, the investigator said Underwood was "completely void
of emotion with no indication of concern."
That same day, detectives
with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office charged her boyfriend, David
Alan McBurnett Jr., with aggravated child abuse. They added a murder
charge after Hunter was pronounced dead.
While in jail, McBurnett told DCF he was in love with Underwood. He
had witnessed her abuse the baby and had yelled at her. Between the two
of them, he was the only one mourning the loss of the toddler.
He withheld information from detectives
during the interrogation to protect his girlfriend. By the time he spoke
with DCF, he was ready to be more forthcoming.
McBurnett, 20, would later plead guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter
with culpable negligence. His father and attorney said it was an
appropriate conviction because he saw abuse happen in front of him and
did nothing to stop it.
The DCF investigator stated McBurnett and his parents realized
Underwood was "slow" and they were "hoping that she would become a
better mother with help and guidance." That is why they never contacted
the Hernando County Sheriff's Office or DCF, according to the investigator's report.
An autopsy revealed Hunter died from blunt head trauma. There was
bleeding on his brain and multiple bruises on his head, arms and body.
Additionally, his brain was swollen and blood had seeped into his spinal canal.
Hunter also had hemorrhages on his right buttock and a cracked rib
that doctors guessed was at least two weeks old by the time he was
rushed to the hospital, reports showed.
A child services investigator at All Children's Hospital in St.
Petersburg said he noticed Hunter had bruising and swelling to both
sides of his head and his right ear lobe. He had numerous small bruises
around the neck and chest, a large bruise on his right hip, left foot,
knee and left thigh. He also had bruises on his lower back, mouth and chin.
DCF concluded Underwood and McBurnett were responsible for the death
of Hunter, while the latter's parents, David Alan Sr. and Regina
McBurnett, had failed to protect him. The investigation was completed in February.
McBurnett Jr. is in a correctional facility in Orlando and is
expected to begin a boot camp program within the next two months. He
will be released once that is completed, his father said.
Underwood lives with her aunt in Shady Hills.
Prosecutor Pete Magrino said last week the case remains open.

Drumstick, remote control and a bottle
McBurnett was not Hunter's father. Underwood previously had lived
with the father's parents in a house near Gainesville.
The couple worked opposite shifts, according to the DCF report. They
made sure to never let Underwood alone with the baby.
When Hunter was a few months old, she moved to another house near
Gainesville for a while before relocating to her mother's house off Neff
Lake Road in Hernando County.
During a deposition last spring with McBurnett's attorney, Antoinette
Underwood said her daughter was a "bad mother" who often neglected
Hunter. She would regularly lay him on the sofa unattended. On a few
occasions, the boy rolled over and fell onto the concrete floor.
Underwood's mother noticed a bump on the baby's head one day and
asked what had happened. "I don't know," Underwood responded,
according to court documents.
In August, she and Hunter moved in with McBurnett at his parents'
house, located off Geronimo Road near the Citrus County line.
"I never did anything to Hunter," McBurnett told the DCF
investigator, describing what life was like at that house for the next month.
He said Underwood was "constantly throwing the baby down."
She shook Hunter, dropped him on the floor and hit him with sandals, McBurnett said.
"He described Ms. Underwood as being very aggressive and violent with
Hunter and an example he provided was that she threw Hunter into his
playpen so hard that it broke the bottom of it," the investigator wrote.
Travis Fleming, a friend of McBurnett's who witnessed Underwood's
abuse on a few occasions at his Nobleton home, said he saw the mother
hit Hunter with a drumstick, baby bottle and a remote control, according to the report.
The last time he saw her hit Hunter with a bottle, he told McBurnett
to never bring his girlfriend back to the house.
Underwood was on disability and suffered from seizures and
attention-deficit disorder. DCF said she had been prescribed two
medications for the seizures and hydrocodone for back pain. She also was
using Xanax for treatment for depression.
On Sept. 11, 2009, when DCF interviewed Underwood, she consented to a
drug test. She tested positive for hydrocodone, the report showed.
Underwood's emotions never changed, but her story did
The DCF interviewer said Underwood showed no "indicators of emotional
distress or ongoing concern" in spite of her son's dire medical condition.
She said she saw McBurnett smack Hunter on the back of his head a few
times. She was present, but chose not to intervene. She also said she
saw him hit the child in his stomach a week before he went to the hospital.
Hours earlier, she told detectives she never saw McBurnett hit her son. Her story changed after they
applied more pressure.
After describing more instances when she watched McBurnett abuse
Hunter, the DCF investigator asked why she never intervened.
She said she was afraid she'd be kicked out of the house and that she
had "nowhere else to go," according to the report.
When the same investigator asked whether she thought being homeless
was a better alternative than abuse, Underwood said, "I think having a
roof over your head is most important."
Underwood said she didn't tell McBurnett's parents their son was
abusing Hunter because she was afraid they would take his side.
But later during the interview with DCF, she said she did tell his
parents, the investigator wrote.
Regina McBurnett said she had little
interaction with her son and Underwood because they stayed in their own
areas of the house.
Soon after McBurnett Jr. and Underwood moved in, both parents
questioned their son as to why he would want to move in with a single
mother, but otherwise they kept to themselves, according to the report.
Regina McBurnett was interviewed by DCF at her home the day Hunter
was taken to the hospital. That was when she said she first noticed
Underwood's propensity to lie, according to the report.
Underwood told DCF she had told Regina McBurnett she witnessed Hunter
being abused at the hands of her son. When Regina McBurnett found this
out, she confronted the investigator and told her Underwood would like
to retract her statement.
"Oh yeah, she says that I didn't tell about David hitting (Hunter) so
I guess I didn't … say … or tell them," Underwood said.

Prosecutor keeps death case open

Published: August 18, 2010

BROOKSVILLE - David Alan McBurnett remains behind bars in an Orlando facility awaiting his transfer to a prison boot camp.

Breanna Underwood is still living free with her aunt in Shady Hills.

Meanwhile, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office ceased its investigation into the death of 1-year-old Hunter Lee Morris.

Sgt. Donna Black, a sheriff's spokeswoman, said the case is closed.

The victim died Sept. 12, 2009, at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg. He was taken off life support after being declared brain dead, according to medical reports. The autopsy report revealed he had been battered extensively and had bruises and broken bones all over his body.

After an interrogation that lasted all morning, the two detectives in the case got Underwood to name McBurnett as the toddler's killer, according to court transcripts.

The following month, a grand jury indicted McBurnett, who was then 19 years old, on first-degree murder and aggravated child battery charges.

In June he pleaded guilty to manslaughter by culpable negligence and received two years in prison. With his credited jail time and pending boot camp, it is expected he will only serve months in prison.

McBurnett's attorney, Ellis Faught, has said his client never abused Hunter. An investigation by the Florida Department of Children and Families disclosed sordid details of the way Underwood treated her child.

Eyewitnesses, including Underwood's mother, said they saw firsthand the mother's neglect and abuse, according to the DCF report.

Faught interviewed several more witnesses who said they saw Underwood hit her son.

In spite of the conviction and the sheriff's office's decision to close the case, Hunter's death continues to loom over Assistant State Attorney Pete Magrino, who handles the bulk of the homicide cases in Hernando and elsewhere in the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Florida.

"Law enforcement, in dealing with one particular individual, may say after there's been an arrest that it's a closed investigation," said Magrino. "That doesn't control a prosecutorial investigation with regards to others who have criminal culpability in the case."

Magrino prosecuted McBurnett. As far as he is concerned, the case remains open, he said.

Due to his recent heavy workload, namely a capital murder case in Brooksville scheduled to take place next week, Magrino said he was "involved in other matters at this juncture" and gave no timetable about the Hunter Lee Morris case.

McBurnett's parents said they heard authorities won't prosecute Underwood until after their son is released from prison, but Magrino wouldn't comment on that.

Faught interviewed Sgt. Curtis Turney and Detective George Loydgren during a series of sworn depositions. Those interviews showed how many leads were missed and how often the detectives resorted to unethical tactics to get the answers they wanted, he said.

Neither Turney nor Loydgren agreed to interview requests.

Faught strongly disapproved of the way the investigation was handled. He blames the detectives for wrongly accusing McBurnett of murder.

He said he wasn't surprised when he learned the sheriff's office had closed the case.

"They don't always march to the sound of the same drummer as some of the more progressive counties," said Faught. "You'd think they would've conducted some kind of cursory review or make some statement.

"If it falls by the wayside, it's unfortunate," he said. "It shouldn't be closed if it hasn't reached an appropriate conclusion."

McBurnett's mother, Regina, said she hopes Underwood is arrested before she becomes pregnant again.

"I know I couldn't deal with that," she said
http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2010/aug/18/ha-prosecutor-keeps-death-case-open/

Man gets 2 years for toddler's death

The Associated Press


Published: Friday, June 11, 2010 at 7:36 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, June 11, 2010 at 7:36 a.m.
BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — A Hernando County man initially accused of fatally abusing his girlfriend's 1-year-old son has been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge.

David Alan McBurnett Jr. pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter by culpable negligence as part of a plea deal. The 20-year-old could have faced life in prison if he was convicted of first-degree murder.

McBurnett was arrested shortly after the child's death in September. Authorities say he repeatedly hit the toddler for crying.

McBurnett's attorney said the child was being abused but not by McBurnett. The attorney would not say who was hurting the boy.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100611/ARTICLES/100619901/1002/NEWS01?Title=Man-gets-2-years-for-toddler-s-death